Franchising is a methodology of doing business that’s often mistakenly associated solely with the fast-food industry. But nowadays, more industries than ever before have adopted this highly successful way of doing business. If you take a look at the British Franchise Association’s (BFA) website, for example, you’ll find businesses in all categories: automotive, lawn care, virtual assistants, at-home care, sports and recreation, food and beverage and, of course, children’s activities, to name but a few. There are many great reasons to franchise your children’s activity business and, in this article, we’re going to explore some of the key ones.
1. Creating Meaningful Work
One of the best things about working in the children’s activity sector is that the work is both enjoyable and extremely rewarding. Giving children a head-start in life matters. It’s meaningful work. It’s said that if you find something you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. This makes it an attractive proposition for prospective franchisees and an easy sell. There is a large pool of people who are looking to work in this industry, and so finding motivated franchisees should be easier. Working with children is fun AND you can make a decent living doing so… which leads us to reason #2.
2. Good Margins
People interested in franchising their business, should focus on mapping out unit franchise economics, first and foremost. What does this mean? It means that you should replicate your existing successful business model, whilst ensuring that when your fees are factored in, your unit franchisees can still be financially successful. Unlike most fast-food type systems, which often require a fixed location (also known as traditional brick and mortar franchises), children’s activities can operate from a multitude of places. This means less start-up costs and less overheads. Plus, if your franchisees do a lot of the operational work, they could see profits in the region of 50%. Once again, this makes it an attractive model for prospective franchisees and makes it fairly quick and easy to scale. See reason #3.
3. Quick and Easy to Scale
Children’s activity businesses can be operated as non-traditional “micro-franchises”, which means that lower overheads and speed to market are possible. Someone looking to franchise their existing business could achieve fast growth this way, especially if they are able to leverage first-mover advantage.
4. Providing Flexible Work
By franchising your business, you are opening the door to people, giving them the opportunity for flexible work. Many people who have children either leave corporate jobs or take a career hiatus, while they are still interested in making money. Children’s activity businesses are a great way to enable people to continue to earn whilst managing a business around their children’s timetable. But the industry also provides the go-getters an opportunity to develop a sizeable business of their own by running multiple units (they are known as multi-unit franchisees). As a franchisor, you are able to set the minimum standards by way of contractual MPTs or “minimum performance targets” to ensure that your franchisees are making enough revenues for your own business to be successful. Flexible working doesn’t have to mean substandard performance. And many people work better when they are empowered to work on their own terms.
5. Great Culture
Last, but not least, the children’s activities sector is a really friendly industry with so many great people involved in it. I have seen a lot of goodwill and generosity, along with a real desire to see others succeed. This means that if you do decide to franchise your existing business, there will be no shortage of help. There are networking opportunities at events hosted by Franchise Associations. Existing franchisors in a variety of sectors are usually happy to share experiences and wisdom from their own journeys. And you’ll find that, within franchise networks, franchisee’s themselves are typically happy to go out of their way to help their “neighbours”.
If you are running a successful children’s activity business and you are interested in exploring options for how you could grow it through the franchise model, discovery calls are free and I’m always happy to chat.
About the author:
Nick Empson is a qualified business coach, experienced franchise consultant and world traveller. With a passion for working alongside franchisors to help them take their business to the next level, he focuses on operations, vision, strategy, scaling up and international markets. Nick has 18+ years experience in franchising, including a significant tenure at a multi-award winning, global franchise brand seeing it grow from a dozen units in one country to over 330 units across 30 countries. www.levelupbcc.com
